Friends called Mike Dunleavy “Nature,” said Tom Conway, who never learned where the nickname came from when they roomed and played on the basketball team together in the 1980s at College Misericordia, now Misericordia University.

The chickens, kept in a coop, Conway said, behind their off-campus housing, may surprise people, but friends say Dunleavy’s election as Alaska’s next governor should not.

“He was always interested in history in college. He’s just very smart,” Conway said.

Alaska voters elected the 1979 Scranton Central High School graduate their new governor Tuesday.

Dunleavy, a Republican, defeated Democrat Mark Begich,a former U.S. senator.

Efforts to reach Dunleavy were unsuccessful Thursday.

Conway said Dunleavy is unrelated to the two men named Mike Dunleavy who played professionally in the National Basketball Association.

Standing 6 feet 7 inches tall, Dunleavy is a son of the late Edward and Rose Dunleavy of Scranton. Everyone who worked in City Hall in the 1970s and 1980s knew Rose Dunleavy, a secretary, aggressive union leader and staunch Democrat.

Dunleavy’s campaign website biography says he was “born in 1961 to working class parents in the Rust Belt city of Scranton, Pennsylvania.”

“His father was employed as a mailman, and his mother as a secretary. Together, they instilled in Mike and his three siblings a strong work ethic, a love of family, and a commitment to doing the right thing even when it’s difficult; especially when it’s difficult,” the bio says.

Dunleavy, a basketball team captain and top scorer at Misericordia, earned a history degree there in 1983.

Don Winder, another Misericordia teammate, said Dunleavy talked during college about moving to Alaska after graduation in search of opportunity.

“It was just a dream of his. He was bound for Alaska,” Winder said.

They talked often about politics, and Dunleavy took his studies seriously.

“He was serious about whatever he did. He had a good sense of humor. He never let things get him down, but he didn’t like losing,” Winder said.

Dunleavy moved to southeast Alaska right after graduating and “took a job at a logging camp on Prince of Wales Island,” according to his campaign biography. He later earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“He spent nearly two decades in northwest Arctic communities working as a teacher, principal, and superintendent,” his campaign biography says.

He and his wife, also named Rose, have three children — Maggie, Catherine, and Ceil.

Dunleavy served as a state senator in Alaska from January 2013 to January 2018, according to an online biography.

“He was clearly a leader, he was articulate and he was genuinely a very kind guy and easy to get along with,” said Jones, the executive director of the United Way of Wyoming Valley. “When it came to basketball, he got his game face on, but off the court, he was a lot of fun to be around.”

Dunleavy usually led the team onto the court. Once, their coach admitted failing to scout their opponent and said they would have to play their normal defense and adjust as the game unfolded.

“Mike leads us out and he has his eyes closed,” Jones said. “I asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m closing my eyes so I know what it’s like to play it by ear.’”

Dunleavy left for Alaska to teach, Jones said.

“I truly believe he took his Misericordia values and went to do good up there and teaching was a way to do good and a way to help others,” said Jones, who’s sure Dunleavy ran for governor for similar reasons. “If I was to see him in the next four years, we’d probably sit down and have a beer and reminisce. He would not come across as a stiff-neck who needed to be pampered.”

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